So after a eventful day of travel and activities, I am finally in Auburn and resting in my room and on my bed. Ah~~~ it is good to be home!!! So let’s recap.

My day started at 2:30 when I woke up trying to get book on an earlier flight of 6:10 am to ATL by using the same day standby. After calling in 10 minutes early and then recall them 20 minutes late, I finally got my 6:10 flight confirmed. The road to the airport parking was not as bad as I thought. I was able to get to the parking deck pretty quickly. Once I checked in, it look me a while to get through airport security. But with my disappointment, I did not get close and personal with a TSA agent. Pretty much all the SeaTac Airport advance imagining machines were off. When I got to the gate, my upgraded ticket was already waiting for me. (oh I love airline status).

The flight was very uneventful at first, the free gogo onboard internet was nice. Thanks Google Chrome!!! When we finally got to ATL, we started to land and just before landing the airplane pulled up and started to increase power and pulling away. The captain then came on over the speaker stating that there was an alarm on one of the landing gears and we are going to circle around and try again. Ok, I was a bit nervous, but not really that nervous. Then just before the second approach and landing the captain says that the landing gears are down, but the door did not come back up because of the hydraulics so we maybe seeing sparks when we land. But he added, everything should be ok. Now I was a bit nervous. However, we landed successfully and immediately pull to a taxi land and stopped. We are waiting for the ground crew to verify that the landing gears are secure before moving the plane to the gate, this will prevent the airplane from collapsing on a bad landing gear.

After picking up my rental car, (and yes Hertz Gold is super awesome, no waiting and just pickup and go!!! Best of all no harassment from sells people like at Enterprise) I was on a hunt for some lunch, in particular Chick-fil-a. After 3 exits of finding all fast food restaurants are closed, I realized that yes, today is Thanksgiving. Doh!

After 3 hours of driving, I made it to Montgomery, Alabama and enjoyed my wonderful Thanksgiving lunch and then Dinner hotpot.

More adventures to come tomorrow with the Auburn vs Alabama Game!!!! WAR EAGLE!!!

if you ever bought a last minute flight, it is difficult to find a cheap airplane ticket with the time you want right?

But, if you are the type that is willing to gamble, then buy the cheapest ticket you can find of the day you want to fly and then try to fly same-day standby for the flight you want. You can save $50 to hundreds of dollars.

So this is the process that I took today and it worked for me, as I am writing this in First Class on a much earlier flight and I won’t be missing Thanksgiving dinner.

1) look online to see if there are a good number of available seats in the earlier flight. If there are only few seat available, then it may not be worth trying.
2) 3 hours before the new flight – anytime if you are Gold or higher. (This is for Delta, other airlines rules maybe different) I called 10 minutes before 3 hour window and they will not let me do anything, so call right at the 3 hour window to increase your chances.
3) If you are not Gold status or higher there is a $50 change fee (however, this maybe different for other airlines)
4) check in online immediately after the move. This will ensure your seat, and put you on standby for upgrade.
5) Drive to the airport and get on your new flight 🙂

An interesting thing happened while I was going through security. While I was waiting for my bag, he person next to me was getting his bag checked by TSA. He said, “it’s phones in there, can you check them without taking them out, our cover them up while you check. They are confidental!!!”

Oh really? What does that mean? Does he mean that he is taking a brand new secret phone to CTIA?? Exciting !!!!

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What an interesting day today, I woke up early this morning, got ready and went to the airport. I parked my car in an off site parking lot, I got to the terminal, I went through the security line and I got to the gate. I was still early, so I went around and look for some food. I got an bottle of OJ and a musubi and went back to the gate. Shortly after, they started the boarding process. I checked in, walking half way through the jet way and then my boss came walking up from the airplane. He said. “well, I just talked to the pilot and they said they don’t understand why we’re still taking off”. The pilot also said that a lot of planes already got cancelled. So my boss ask us if we should go or not. Finally our boss decided to cancel our trip to New York and not risk the chance of getting stuck either in New York or worse get stuck halfway between here in New York because we’re unable to land in New York and miss our interview.

So after walking back out to the terminal, and pick my car back up … I was back to work in Seattle 🙂

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Our flight was delayed yesterday because of the big snow storm in Europe. We wasted alot of time in air and then landed in London for refilling and then more time in air. when we finally landed in Amsterdam everything was cancelled. So after 6 hours of waiting in line yesterday in Amsterdam airport for our cancelled flight, we finally got a hotel room at the Ibis hotel near the airport. The hotel was comped by KML and we had dinner and breakfast this morning

So this morning we are back in a 4 hour minimum line for getting a flight to Paris. I don’t know if we will get to Paris tonight. My thought is trying to get them to get us a ticket to paris on the 24th. and just spend our vacation here in Amsterdam. It is already 10:40 and I don’t think we will be getting to speak to anyone before 12 pm today.

We already missed one day of hotel in Tours, missed our TGV train to Tours from Paris, and we will probably miss our return train if we decide to stay here. My iphone is broken so no Iphone.

so yeah… so far this trip really sucks so far… maybe it will turn around soon.

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So it is so interesting. While I was waiting to go through security today at SEATAC. I saw a Chinese priest. I ask where is Father going today. He said San Francisco all the sudden I realized that he is my uncle (my father’s cousin, the Archbishop from Taiwan!!!) Oh my gosh… I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I ran in to him at the security check in in SEATAC. This must be something special!!!!

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So interesting day today, I will be heading back to Houston today. It has been many many many years since I been back to Houston. No no… I been back to Houston IAH airport, but actually going back to Houston City.. it has been a while. So many memories… I will be there for Easter weekend and I will return to Seattle, on Monday morning. So the only thing now is to cross my fingers and hope for upgrades!!!

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So after a full day of stuck in the airport trying to find a way home from Medford, Oregon. I am finally home!!! and when I got home and open up my mail box… look what I found!!!

Ping Pong!!! my new mailed ordered glasses are in. If you guys remember, a few weeks back, I got my eyes check and then got my new glasses prescription, so I decided to try my luck with some online glasses!!! after a long wait, they are finally in!!! Woo hoo… I am soo excited.

So after taking some time opening it … I finally get a chance to put it on.

… my first reaction is … sometime is not right? If I look straight it seems to be clear but my peripheral vision is a little mixed up. I am thinking at first it maybe just my new prescription.

After a while I started to notice that I am getting a slight headache.

I am beginning to think that there is something wrong.

So… yeah… my follow up appointment with my eye doctor is this Thrusday.. I will ask her then.

But I think it is probably the lens or the frame maybe too small. oh well.. the worst comes to worst I am out of $55.

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So … it has been a while since my last train trip. I think it was few years ago when I was still in Ephrata. I last took a train trip to Seattle for an interview. However, this time I am not going for an interview. I am actually going to Portland for work. So why did I take the train, besides it is cheaper and I can work on the train and it is not as stressful as driving and airport craziness? Well… I like trains… I always liked trains …ever since I was a little boy.

Trains are great!!!

It is interesting … riding on the train.. you pass so many little towns that looks like Ephrata or if not smaller. So I am in a small town called Kelso WA right now.

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Oh my gosh… I can’t believe it is already end of November and yet there are still so many things to do. So right now I am sitting in the Seatac airport waiting for my parent’s flight. I am so thankful that my Mom and Dad are coming over to my place for thanksgiving this year. We are having a Chen’s family dinner here in Seattle. I guess this would be the closest I would get to a Thanksgiving dinner of my own in my own place for a while…. Sigh…

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Well.. the holidays are over, I dropped my parents off at the airport this morning and now I am sitting in my duplex all alone. It has been about 3 weeks with family here now all of the sudden it is just quiet and alone… Sigh… School is about to begin so that’s good. So I guess the plan will be I will go snowboarding tomorrow.

So on a brighter note… I was talking to my friend Angel today. She was saying about her goal and dreams. And I responded… oh yeah… you know what I dreamed about last night.. “Banana’s”!

What a moron.. ha ha ha… but I did dream about bananas.. for some reason, I was dreaming about buying fresh bananas from the fruit stand.

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I am in Cincinnati right now. I am still sitting in the airport. I got just got free weekend wireless from t-mobile… since I am a t-mobile member…. how cool huh… yeah!!! good deal. Anyway… I am still waiting for my flight… I think it is being delayed. The interesting thing is I thought Cincinnati is Central time, but they are on Eastern time. I almost choke on my food when I realized that I only had 30 minutes before the plane departs. …. oh … they are boarding now… so… see ya in Seattle.

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What a busy day yesterday. Well, I picked up my sister from the airport yesterday, and we drove back to Ephrata last night. Today, we are going up to Mission ridge. It seems that they got 1/2 inch of snow at Mission last night. It is not much … but better than nothing… oooooh I just can’t wait to get up there.

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Well, I am sitting in the airport.. waiting on my flight to Birmingham. It is so noisy here.. but it will be ok. I will be in bham shortly and then I will be home… Surprise Mom :D.Happy New Year Everyone!

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It is 3:55 am and I am sitting in front of the Continental Airlines counter using a free wireless. anyway…. did not get any sleep yet because we did not get back to uncle Chen’s place until 1:30 am. By then it was too last to sleep. So I ask uncle Chen to drop me off at the airport. Well… I have not played Starcraft for a while and yes… last night was pretty fun. Those young kids were pretty good. 2 to 1 yes… I gave them a good run but eventually they overwhelmed me. Yeah… I am getting rusty. They sure talk alot of trash. Anyway.. got to check in now.

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Well…. Today I will start my trip back home for Christmas. So here’s the plan.

1) Leave work early to head to Seattle2) Bring gifts to my friends in Seattle3) Dinner

and then the fun begins

4) Well, I have confirmed tickets for 6:10 am but I will try to get on the 12:10 am flightso… I will show up at the airport for stand-by. If everthing goes well… I should be on my way home early tomorrow morning.